Managing profiles for nonroot users

The nonroot user can receive permissions for files and directories so that the nonroot user can create a profile.

Before you begin

This task assumes a basic familiarity with the manageprofiles command, the Profile Management Tool, and system commands.

This task uses the following terms:
  • Root users refers to:
    • Root users
    • Administrators
  • Non-root users refers to:
    • Non-root users
    • Non-administrators
  • Installer refers to a root user or a non-root user.
Remember: An ease-of-use limitation exists for nonroot users who create profiles. Mechanisms within the Profile Management Tool that suggest unique names and port values are disabled for nonroot users. The nonroot user must change the default field values in the Profile Management Tool for the profile name, node name, cell name, and port assignments. Consider assigning nonroot users a range of values for each of the fields. You can assign responsibility to the nonroot users for adhering to their assigned value ranges and for maintaining the integrity of their own definitions.
Best practice Best practice: [Updated in September 2012] IBM recommends starting processes that run on the same profile with user IDs that have mutually compatible file permissions, meaning that each process can read or update files that the other processes create. This ensures that the processes can access the same files without encountering a permission-denied error. For example, if you run the deployment manager as user wasuser and then also run the command line tool to generate plug-ins on that same profile, you should run the tool as user wasuser. [Updated in September 2012]
sep2012
bprac
Tip: In WebSphere® Application Server Version 8.0.0.4 and later, files created by an administrator outside of the Program Files directory are usable by non-administrators. This allows an administrator to create a profile outside of the WebSphere Application Server installation directory and have a non-administrator manage the profile. To use this functionality, perform the following actions:
  1. Install WebSphere Application Server to a directory that has no default write permissions for non-administrators—C:\Program Files (x86) for example.
  2. Install the Version 8.0.0.4 or later fix pack using Installation Manager.
  3. Modify the app_server_root/properties/wasprofile.properties file. The following should have been added by the fix pack to the bottom of the file:
    #-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    # Specify if enhanced/fixed Apache ant task behaviour should be used.
    # 
    # Note that this only has effect on Windows platforms.
    #-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    WS_USE_ENHANCED_OPENSOURCE_BEHAVIOUR=false
    Simply change the value of WS_USE_ENHANCED_OPENSOURCE_BEHAVIOUR to true, and you can take advantage of this feature. For example:
    1. Launch the Profile Management Tool to create a profile.
    2. When creating the profile, select the advanced flow.
    3. Set the profile path to somewhere outside the C:\Program Files (x86) directory (or whichever directory was used for the installation) where non-administrators have default write permissions—C:\Profiles\AppSrv01 for example.
    4. Make sure that you do not use a Windows service when creating the profile.
    5. Make sure that the app_server_root/bin/setupCmdLine.bat file has read permissions for non-administrators.
    6. You should be able to log in with a non-administrator ID and start the server.

About this task

Nonroot users might typically need these tasks completed so that they can start their own application servers in development environments. For instance, an application developer might test an application on a application server in a profile assigned to that application developer.

Procedure

Results

Depending on the tasks that the installer followed, the installer has completed the following actions:
  • Created a profile for a nonroot user and assigned ownership of the profile directory to the nonroot user
  • Granted permission to the appropriate directories so that nonroot users can create profiles
  • After installing maintenance, changed ownership of new profile files in a directory that is owned by a nonroot user, so that the nonroot user can successfully start the application server
Note: Connections to the Derby database might not work, and you might see errors like the following in the logs:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\derby\derby.log (Access is denied.)
This can happen when files under app_server_root are read-only. You can configure Derby to write its log to another location by setting the following property in the app_server_root/derby/derby.properties file
# This property can be set to make Derby log to System.err.  This is useful if you 
# do not have write permission to the default location: 
/opt/wasprofile/derby/derby.log derby.stream.error.field=java.lang.System.err

What to do next

Depending on the tasks that the installer completes, a nonroot user can create a profile, start WebSphere Application Server, or do both.




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Last updatedLast updated: Feb 6, 2014 11:19:27 PM CST
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